DailyDot dongle Feedhttp://www.dailydot.com/tags/dongle/Recent dongle articles from Daily Doten-usMon, 09 Feb 2015 15:08:25 +0000This STD-testing smartphone gadget could save liveshttp://www.dailydot.com/debug/std-test-smartphone-app/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/3b/00/3b004e1cc306e6a2d7ff55470930e8e8.jpg'></p>
Researchers at <a href="http://engineering.columbia.edu/smartphone-finger-prick-15-minutes-diagnosis%E2%80%94done-0">Columbia University</a> have built an STD testing device that plugs into your smartphone and can test you for syphilis and HIV in just 15 minutes.<br><p>Headed up by associate professor Samuel K. Sia, the research team developed the device as an alternative to the bulky, expensive lab equipment usually required for this type of test. Using the new smartphone dongle, you just prick your finger, enter the blood sample, and use a phone app to get your results. This&nbsp;<a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/youtube/">YouTube</a> instruction video shows just how quick and easy the future of STD testing could be.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PVRDOVhOcVNnajR3IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>To many people, the applications of this gadget might seem obvious. The awkwardness of requesting a blood sample during foreplay aside, you could potentially use one of these testing kits to check prospective sex partners for STDs.&nbsp;<p>Additionally, due to the cultural stigma surrounding sexually transmitted diseases, getting tested at a public clinic is an invasive and humiliating process for many people. With this device, you could get tested in the privacy of your own home, without having to deal with the potential embarrassment of running into someone you know at a doctor's office or clinic.&nbsp;</p><p>The portable smartphone test kit also has the potential to save lives in places like Rwanda, where it might not be possible to get tested at a brick-and-mortar clinic. The dongle was tested in Rwanda by doctors who had signed onto programs combating mother-to-child disease transmission. It only took 30 minutes to train healthcare workers to use the device, and 97 percent of patients recommended it afterwards.&nbsp;</p><p>“We are really excited about the next steps in bringing this product to the market in developing countries,” said Sia. “And we are equally excited about exploring how this technology can benefit patients and consumers back home.”&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photo via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Personal_Health_Apps_for_Smartphones.jpg">Intel Free Press</a>/Wikimedia (CC-BY-2.0)</em></p>
<p></p><p></p>gavia@dailydot.com (Gavia Baker-Whitelaw)Mon, 09 Feb 2015 15:08:25 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/debug/std-test-smartphone-app/IRLDebugAdria Richards is putting #donglegate behind herhttp://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-putting-donglegate-behind-her/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/0d/61/0d6191ae3903cf0915fa4be452d93d34.jpg'></p><p>
Rather than dwell on the incident that cost her a job, Adria Richards wants to move on from #donglegate.</p>
<p>
Quick background: After overhearing off-color jokes from the men behind her at developer conference PyCon, Richards <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">tweeted a photo of them</a>. The pic led to one of the men <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/reddit-mra-donglegate-adria-richards-feminists/">losing his job</a> at mobile game monetization firm PlayHaven. <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-ada-initiative-women-in-tech/">Many </a><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/adria-richards-pycon-call-out-culture/">responding to Richards</a> on her blog, Twitter, Hacker News, and elsewhere sent abusive and threatening messages.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
After her employer, SendGrid, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-4chan-raid-sendgrid-donglegate/">suffered downtime</a> as a result of a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, it <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/">terminated her contract</a> last Thursday.</p>
<p>
Richards was radio silent for much of the last week, save for a tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/adriarichards/status/315531193904939009">thanking supporters</a>. But on Wednesday, she issued a statement to <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130327/fired-sendgrid-developer-evangelist-adria-richards-speaks-out/">AllThingsD</a>, in which she advocated for inclusivity and diversity in the technology industry.</p>
<p>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Those who know me well in the the developer and tech community recognize that I have always tried to conduct myself in a way that builds bridges for everyone. My central aim is to do everything I can to help create new, inclusive inroads for all, no matter who they are, where they come from or what they believe. Development is about innovation, creativity, and in a grand sense, the betterment of human society through technology. So, it stands to reason that everyone should have a seat at the table, and everyone involved in this vital community should feel welcome, safe and respected. In essence, the worldwide community of developers can and should function as a reflection of what our wider society strives to be.<br />
<br />
I cannot comment at this time on the specifics of what occurred at PyCon on March 17, and the subsequent events of the following days, but I can offer some general thoughts. I don&rsquo;t think anyone who was part of what happened at PyCon that day could possibly have imagined how this issue would have exploded into the public consciousness the way it has. I certainly did not, and now that the severest of consequences have manifested, all I wish to do is find the good in what has been one of the most challenging weeks of my life.<br />
<br />
And I do believe there is good to be found in this situation. Debate and recrimination can and must give way to dialog that explores the root causes of these issues in the tech industry. As developers and members of the startup community, we can welcome newcomers, women and people of color who, as of now, are under-represented in our ranks. And, all of us can learn a great deal from those who are well-established in the field. We can solidify the values of our workplaces (yes, conference spaces are workplaces!), and set new, positive and inclusive examples for other professional disciplines.<br />
<br />
What happened at PyCon has cast a spotlight on a range of deep issues and problems in the developer world. As ugly as this situation has become, all of these issues have reasonable, and, I think, easily reached solutions that will help us cast conflict aside and construct a more cohesive and welcoming professional environment based on respect, trust and open communication. I do not, at this time, wish to concentrate on the fallout of the last several days. Instead, I want to be an integral part of a diverse, core group of individuals that comes together in a spirit of healing and openness to devise answers to the many questions that have arisen in the last week. Together, we can work to make the tech world a better place to work for everyone, and in doing so, we make the wider world a better place for all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Meanwhile, Richards is among the lucky few to be <a href="https://twitter.com/projectglass/status/316992975051816960">offered</a> an early version of Google Glass. In February, Google ran a contest where those who wanted the wearable computing device would need to explain what they&#39;d do with it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/27/richardsglass.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/27/richardsglass.jpg" style="width: 458px; height: 322px;" /></a></p>
<p>
Now all she needs to do is pay $1,500 for the privilege.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>H/T </em><a href="http://mashable.com/2013/03/27/google-glass-announces-winners/"><em>Mashable</em></a><em> | Photo via </em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc-OTWbrirQ"><em>adriarichards</em></a><em>/YouTube</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:31:51 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-putting-donglegate-behind-her/SocietyIn defense of Adria Richards and call-out culturehttp://www.dailydot.com/via/adria-richards-pycon-call-out-culture/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/9e/ff/9effed5f8b6acbc5e85ad47aac7f03ad.jpg'></p><p>
As the dust settles from <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">#donglegate</a>, Adria Richards&#39; tweeting of two men who made inappropriate jokes while sitting behind her at PyCon, the heated debate about her behavior and the subsequent firings of both Richards and one of the programmers has cemented as well. In the past 12 hours, numerous pundits and bloggers have seemingly decided that Richards&#39; response was an &quot;overreaction.&quot;</p>
<p>
This angle has been played up again and again, in posts like <a href="http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/3/">Amanda Blum</a>&#39;s about how Richards was &quot;not an easy person&quot; and <a href="https://twitter.com/AdrianChen/status/315144520578789376">statements</a> like Adrian Chen&#39;s that the &ldquo;context showed it wasn&#39;t a matter of a woman fighting against sexism but an overreaction that was part of a [pattern].&quot;</p>
<p>
Here is some much-needed context that&#39;s getting left out of the discussion:</p>
<ul>
<li>
The incident was not the first time that day that Richards had encountered sexual &quot;jokes.&quot;</li>
<li>
PyCon representatives had escorted the programmer out of the room after hearing Richards&#39; complaint.</li>
<li>
PyCon has a harassment policy that states, &quot;PyCon is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone.&quot;</li>
<li>
Because of the efforts it made to encourage women to <em>feel safe</em> while attending, PyCon reportedly had an attendance rating of 20 percent, a rate that according to the Ada Initiative&#39;s Valerie Aurora, is &quot;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-ada-initiative-women-in-tech/">unheard of</a>.&quot;</li>
</ul>
<p>
What happened at PyCon is a clash of two different sets of cultures: con culture and call-out culture.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Geek convention culture is predominantly male, overwhelmingly gendered, and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/1reasonwhy-twitter-gaming-sexism-mentors/">steeped in serious, ongoing problems</a> with <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/readercon-board-resigns-sexual-harassment/">misogyny</a>, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/black-cat-cosplayer-nycc-harassment-tumblr/">sexual harassment</a>, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/everfree-northwest-harassment-tumblr-bronies/">physical assaults</a>, and rape.</p>
<p>
Conventions are not <a href="http://www.cahp.girl-wonder.org/con-database/">evolving sexual harassment policies</a> because women are overreacting to jokes. Conventions are evolving sexual harassment policies at conventions because jokes about sexual harassment can lead to actual harassment. &nbsp;Women <em>know</em> that sexual jokes can lead to real harassment. That is <em>why</em> sexual jokes make women uncomfortable. That&#39;s why women in these environments are often edgy, wary, and on their guard, and why they are <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/readercon-comic-gamer-sexism-kate-leth/">increasingly forming groups</a> like the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-ada-initiative-women-in-tech/">Ada Initiative</a> and the Con Anti-Harassment to protect themselves and strengthen the safety of their environments.</p>
<p>
If you&#39;re a woman at a geek, gamer, fandom, or tech con, regardless of whether you&#39;re wearing cosplay, there&#39;s a very good chance you&#39;ve endured a moment, or moments, that made you feel unsafe. If you&#39;ve ever been in that position, the absolute last thing you want to do is to continue talking to the people who have put you in it. At DragonCon last year a vendor leveled a leering sexual innuendo at me that made me feel demeaned, mortified, embarrassed, ashamed, and horrified at once. Was it a joke? Yes. Am I a humorless bitch for not laughing? No. I am a woman who, in that moment, was made to feel objectified and afraid for her safety.</p>
<p>
What happens when you can&#39;t or won&#39;t engage directly with the people who are threatening you but you still want to be heard, to take action?</p>
<p>
Call-out culture. It&rsquo;s a growing group of women who are taking their complaints to the Internet. On websites like <a href="http://ihollaback.org/">ihollaback</a> and Tumblr, women complain publicly about public harassment. It&#39;s a form of offensive defense. When men do this kind of thing, it can take the form of &ldquo;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-creepshots-private-moderator-dox-blackmail/">creepshots</a>&rdquo;&mdash;objectifying women, being voyeuristic, invading their privacy. But when women do this kind of thing, it&#39;s most often in an attempt to protect themselves by sounding an alarm, attempting to alert other women to the presence of potential predators in their midst.</p>
<p>
The culture is often criticized, but it&#39;s also helped to make women increasingly safe in public spaces. And regardless of what Richards&#39; critics are saying, PyCon was a public space, full of a large and diverse number of attendee, and when she snapped and tweeted that photo, she knew that she was acting as part of that empowering call-out culture.</p>
<p>
Here&#39;s how an anonymous female developer known as Himawari put it in an email to the Daily Dot:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
&ldquo;When someone is banned from an online game or a conference or any other community for harassment, we need to know about it. We don&#39;t necessarily need to know the person&#39;s real name, but we need to see it prominently featured that a harasser was banned and that the people in charge don&#39;t support that type of behavior. This not only makes non-harassers feel safer, but it also helps to send a message to harassers that they are not welcome and there are actually going to be real world consequences... &nbsp;An atmosphere of secrecy intimidates women into keeping quiet and thinking that their courage in speaking up is not only not appreciated, but something that everyone is ashamed of and wants to see hidden away quickly.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
I once took, and tweeted, a photograph of a man who sat down in my row and began masturbating during the rape scenes in <em>The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo</em>. I did it because I was repulsed, horrified, and angry, and most of all because I wanted him to stop. And, on some level, because I was afraid he would hurt me. Call-out culture, I believe, helped me make it impossible for him to do so.</p>
<p>
The bottom line in all of this is that call-out culture exists because <em>women can be raped or violently killed</em> if they directly confront the people making the jokes. That is the bottom line, and it is why no woman should be required to confront someone who makes her uncomfortable, for any reason.</p>
<p>
Nothing in the backlash we&#39;ve seen over Richards&#39; callout makes me believe that geek culture is getting safer. If anything, the backlash leveled at people like <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/culture/anita-sarkeesian-ted-talk-misogynist-comments/">Anita Sarkeesian</a> and Richards makes me feel <em>more</em> unsafe, because more and more men are egging each other on to destroy these women in ways that could so easily spill over into real life.</p>
<p>
Today it&#39;s Steubenville; tomorrow maybe it&#39;s Comic-Con. The real &quot;pattern of behavior&quot; is the sexism that makes women in conventions frequently uncomfortable and unsafe, <em>not</em> Richards&#39; behavior in reacting, repeatedly, to instances where she was made uncomfortable.</p>
<p>
Over and over again, people are asking, &quot;Why didn&#39;t she confront the people she had a problem with?&quot;</p>
<p>
Worst case scenario? Because those men could have found her later, and hurt her with impunity. By taking their picture and making it public, Richards was attempting to safeguard herself not only against their future retribution, but against the culture that allowed them to sit there making childish jokes without any accountability or sense of where they were.</p>
<p>
And still that culture continues to protect them and demand that she be shamed and vilified for her behavior. &nbsp;It&#39;s telling, isn&#39;t it, that while Richards was quickly doxxed, we <em>still</em> don&#39;t know the name or identity of the man who was fired from Playhaven over his comments.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.playhaven.com/addressing-pycon/">According to Playhaven</a>, he was fired because of &quot;all the factors that contributed to our parting ways.&quot;</p>
<p>
In other words, a pattern of behavior.</p>
<p>
The kind that can make women feel unsafe.</p>
<p>
The kind that can make them want to <strike>over</strike>react.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via </em><a href="http://freshworkshops.com/training-courses/past-training/themes-twenty-ten-for-beginners/"><em>Freshworkshops.com</em></a></p>
aja@dailydot.com (Aja Romano)Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:59:02 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/adria-richards-pycon-call-out-culture/ViaThe Ada Initiative sounds off on the Adria Richards backlashhttp://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-ada-initiative-women-in-tech/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/24/10/2410ad0e50d3b4d42f2a78271eb3b499.jpg'></p><p>
The technosphere is reeling over <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">#Donglegate</a>, the firing of an unnamed programmer after Adria Richards called him out via Twitter for uncomfortable sexualized jokes he made at a programmers&#39; conference&mdash;and the subsequent <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/">firing of Richards herself</a> after the Internet responded with a massive backlash that has included doxing, rape and death threats, and denial of service (DDoS) attacks on her website and that of her former company, SendGrid.</p>
<p>
And all this is over a single incident at a conference that had extremely positive feedback from the women in attendance, and an incredibly high number of women attending (at least for the tech world).&nbsp;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
But is this really an isolated incident or a sign of something larger going on within the community? I spoke with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Aurora">Valerie Aurora</a>, cofounder of the Ada Initiative, an advocacy group for women in tech and geek culture. Aurora and the Ada Initiative were also recently involved in speaking out against a tech conference environment that <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/violet-blue-security-bsides-sf-hackers-date-rape/">made them uncomfortable</a>, much to the chagrin of many attendants. We spoke to her about the rising tensions in tech culture and the possibilities for preventing incidents like this one&mdash;and the subsequent massive fallout&mdash;from happening to techies in the future.</p>
<p>
<em><strong>Daily Dot: What is going on in the technosphere right now?!</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Sexism in tech has been a problem for a long time, but people have been trying to keep it underground and under wraps. I think part of what&#39;s happened is that the Internet has given women the ability to <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/1reasonwhy-twitter-gaming-sexism-mentors/">share their stories</a>. We&#39;ve tried to paper over all these fault lines but there are underlying problems of major, underlying issues in tech. It&#39;s not so much this incident itself as this growing feeling of, &#39;hey, there&#39;s something wrong here; women deserve to be treated as people.&#39;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Is this tied in with </strong><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/anita-sarkeesian-feminist-frequency-backlash/"><strong>Anita Sarkeesian</strong></a><strong>, the </strong><a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/07/richard-dawkins-draws-feminist-wrath-over-sexual-harassment-comments/39637/"><strong>Skepchick backlash</strong></a><strong>, etc? Are these all connected or are they individual skirmishes?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
There are all personal connections between different people and groups, in that we share various tools and teach each other how to use them. So for example, Rebecca Watson stating that she <a href="http://skepchick.org/2012/06/why-i-wont-be-at-tam-this-year/">won&#39;t speak at a conference</a> unless it has a sexual harassment policy. This is actually something that began in <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/readercon-sexual-harassment-zero-tolerance/">science fiction conventions</a> and spread to tech conventions. And of course, clearly the people who oppose [women in tech] are also sharing the same tactics, like rape threats and doxing, etc.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Is this a culture that&#39;s arising from the culture around the computer industry, or is it a culture that&#39;s arising from communities like 4chan?&nbsp;</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
The feeling has always been there in our culture. What I think the Internet has changed is that it&#39;s made it lower cost for people to express their sexist and racist comments or feelings. So most people feel that &nbsp;they can safely make these comments without being punished. And I think that may be part of why this incident is so huge; people felt safe making sexist comments in what they thought was a crowd. ... I feel like these opinions have been there already; it&#39;s just that people have more opportunity to express them without consequences. For the vast majority of people sending [Richards] rape threats there will be no cost. They won&#39;t get fired, their names won&#39;t be on the Internet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Do you feel like the solution was to fire the programmer?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I don&#39;t have enough information to know that. If there was a situation where there&#39;d been like five other incidents, then that would be it, right? None of us knows. [<strong>Note:</strong> Playhaven, the employer of the fired programmer, has since <a href="http://blog.playhaven.com/addressing-pycon/">clarified their decision</a>.] I do know that Adria... certainly didn&#39;t suggest it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Is this &quot;shoot the messenger&quot; mentality more acceptable in tech culture, or is it society-wide?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I think that a key element of what got her fired was Anonymous, in that in Internet tech culture, when you upset the guys who like the sexist jokes, what you get is a massive hacker attack.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>A Denial of Service.</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Right, all across everything&mdash;her website, their website. And it allows people to disrupt your business very easily. If you put together a boycott, people have to passionately care and be committed to social justice before the boycott has any effect. If you put together a Denial of Service attack, all you need is a bunch of computers that you&#39;ve broken into. It&#39;s a way of distorting social pressure so that it has a much greater effect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Does SendGrid have reasonable grounds for firing her?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
That&#39;s an interesting question and it also applies to the other firing. There&#39;s always more information than we have. It&#39;s important to keep in mind that we don&#39;t know everything. I don&#39;t know whether they had reasonable grounds to fire her. What I do know is that by firing her they sent a message to women in tech all over the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>What was that message?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Don&#39;t speak up. It&#39;s an interesting thing. People will say they want sexism to end, but they won&#39;t support any of the things you have to do to end it. There&#39;s no reason for people to <em>stop</em> being sexist if they have no reason to <em>worry</em> about being sexist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Do you agree with Richards&#39;s method? She basically outed these guys.</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I do notice that many of the people who support the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/reddit-r-jailbait-shutdown-controversy/">Reddit jailbait photos</a> of underage women in sexual positions taken without their consent, are also the same people who are suddenly saying, &#39;Wait, now that it&#39;s a white guy who&#39;s a programmer, taking his picture and posting it without his consent? That&#39;s not cool.&#39; So there&#39;s some level of hypocrisy going on. It&#39;s clear that people differ on whether that was a good move. It does seem clear to me that the reason to do it was to remove that level of anonymity, because they were faceless and nameless in the crowd.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>What&#39;s the ideal safe environment for a woman to have a productive time at a tech conference like this?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Well, it&#39;s a very long list, and there&#39;s actually a good page on the Geek Feminism Wiki called <a href="http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Women-friendly_events">Women-Friendly Events</a>. The important thing, I think, is to listen to what women say and to understand that women are different and have different needs and feelings, both from each other and from people with other genders.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>That&#39;s pretty basic.</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
[Laughter] Yes, but a lot of people don&#39;t understand.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>PyCon actually seemed to do a good job of making their environment safe, and I saw that you ran a </strong><a href="http://adainitiative.org/2013/03/pycon-feminist-hacker-lounge-report-out/"><strong>Feminist Hacker Lounge</strong></a><strong>. What, if anything, can we learn from PyCon?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I think what we can learn is that if you do all of the things that all of the women-in-tech activists have been saying you should do, you can get a record percentage of women at your conference. I saw <a href="https://twitter.com/xensesthegreat/status/313790759096696832">one tweet</a> saying that there were over 20% women at Pycon. That is unheard of. And I think that that may also be part of why there&#39;s so much backlash on this particular incident. Doing all these things, having a code of conduct at your conference, having lots and lots of encouragement for women in tech, <em>works</em>, and it brings women into the community, and for whatever reason people don&#39;t want that. And if you&#39;re against that, then that was a pretty depressing thing to see.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Why do you think the &quot;it was just a joke&quot; refrain is so popular with the people who are backlashing against Richards right now?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I&#39;d refer people to the &quot;<a href="http://geekfeminism.org/2012/03/19/what-she-really-said-fighting-sexist-jokes-the-geeky-way/">Lighten Up</a>&quot; blogpost. It&#39;s a classic way to belittle and trivialize other people&#39;s real experiences. If it&#39;s the case that you do want more women in tech then it shouldn&#39;t matter that it&#39;s a joke.<br />
<br />
The thing that struck me about Adria&#39;s blog post was that she thought about herself, and it wasn&#39;t enough to take action, but then she thought about that little girl who had just learned Python. &quot;It&#39;s just a joke&quot; is what&#39;s keeping you daughters from becoming computer programmers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Has this overshadowed all the inclusivity of PyCon?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I think that depends on what happens over the next week. The jury&#39;s still out on whether this will be a net-positive or a net-negative, and it really depends on what people like your readers will do in the next few days.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>How do moments like this affect the Ada Initiative and the work that you do?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
It&#39;s both discouraging and causes me to work harder. There are some days when you say, &#39;Is this worth doing or am I having an impact?&#39; And when you see something like this, you say, &quot;Wow, this is really important work to do: this is affecting the entire future of technology and the entire future of our culture, because it&#39;s so Internet-based.&quot; So it&#39;s a kick in the pants, in both senses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Is there any way to turn this into a positive?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
I think one way to make this a positive is to donate to <a href="http://www.blackgirlscode.com/">Black Girls Code</a>. I was shocked and horrified&mdash;and I should not be shocked and horrified, but it&#39;s because I&#39;m not a Person of Color [and I&#39;m not already used to seeing these things]&mdash;that people were using racist epithets about her, including the N-word. It&#39;s about both her gender and her race. I think that race is an important dimension in this story as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em><strong>Is it ever OK to just laugh it off? If she hadn&#39;t thought about that girl and just said, &quot;OK, I&#39;m going to move on.&quot; Would that have been doing everyone a favor?</strong></em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
It&#39;s hard to say. If everyone always does that, nothing will change&mdash;and it seems like things get worse, even, if we&#39;re not fighting sexism. Look at everyone who thought that sexism was over 20, 30 years ago. In each individual case, it&#39;s hard to tell what the greatest effect is going to have. But it&#39;s also really important for people to consider how much they can take at that moment. Everyone has their own ability to fight at any particular time. Somebody has to speak up sometime, or we&#39;re never gonna fix this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<em>Photo via </em><a href="http://adainitiative.org/2012/10/open-source-software-open-to-all/"><em>the Ada Initiative</em></a></p>
aja@dailydot.com (Aja Romano)Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:46:51 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-ada-initiative-women-in-tech/SocietyLet's try to talk about Adria Richards like adults, OK?http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/adria-richards-tech-industry-sexism/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/d2/bf/d2bf649063233c04e699f26bd8f3feef.jpg'></p><p>
<em>Every evening, the Daily Dot delivers a selection of links worth clicking from around the Web, along with the day&#39;s must-see image or video. We call it Dotted Lines.</em></p>
<ul>
<li>
Do better, Hacker News.&nbsp;<a href="http://betabeat.com/2013/03/why-cant-the-tech-community-talk-about-adria-richards-like-grownups/">Why can&#39;t the tech industry</a>&nbsp;talk about Adria Richards like grownups?</li>
<li>
<a href="http://hypervocal.com/culture/2013/jane-doe-rape-cnn-steubenville/">I Am Jane Doe</a>: An open letter to CNN, Poppy Harlow, and all the Steubenville rapist sympathizers.</li>
<li>
On a lighter note, <a href="http://www.papermag.com/2013/03/tina_fey_muppets_movie_eight_items.php">Tina Fey will be</a> in the upcoming Muppets movie.</li>
<li>
And Miley Cyrus is <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2013-03-21/miley-cyrus-throws-herself-a-onezie-party-of-one/">dancing</a> in a unicorn onesie.&nbsp;</li>
<li>
And James Deen, the porn star everyone can agree on, <a href="http://guycodeblog.mtv.com/2013/03/21/james-deen-interview-porn/">talks</a> <em>Fifty Shades of Grey</em>.</li>
<li>
This <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/a-lizard-robot-to-delight-you-and-or-haunt-your-dreams/274263/">lizard robot</a> will make you jaw drop. And also maybe terrify you.</li>
<li>
<em>Game of Thrones</em> gets the <em>Calvin and Hobbes</em> treatment <a href="http://www.robotmutant.com/2013/03/20/jon-and-ghost-get-calvinized-on-game-of-thrones-t-shirt/">for a T-shirt</a>.</li>
<li>
And a baby tries to <a href="http://dailyoftheday.com/baby-wants-to-hulk-out-like-his-dad/">imitate</a> the Incredible Hulk:&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>
<iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SOxif9g_CAk?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="600"></iframe></p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blogumentary/3438332939/">blogumentary</a>/Flickr</em></p>
cooper@dailydot.com (Cooper Fleishman)Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:57:21 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/adria-richards-tech-industry-sexism/YouTubeUpstreamInside 4chan's plot to get Adria Richards firedhttp://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-4chan-raid-sendgrid-donglegate/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/29/04/2904f164ebcd61978ad13ab8497ed9f6.jpg'></p><p>
With the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">#donglegate saga</a> <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/">erupting</a>, it may come as little surprise that <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/4chan">4chan</a>&#39;s anarchic /b/ forum&nbsp;got involved.</p>
<p>
At this weekend&#39;s programming conference PyCon, developer evangelist Adria Richards overheard a sexual joke about &quot;big dongles&quot; and tweeted a photo of the laughing attendees behind her. She forwarded the image to PyCon staff along with a link to the event&#39;s <a href="https://us.pycon.org/2013/about/code-of-conduct/">code of conduct</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/20/pycon1.jpg" style="width: 465px; height: 627px;" /></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
The men weren&#39;t kicked out, but that image led to one man, an employee with mobile game monetization company PlayHaven, <a href="http://blog.playhaven.com/addressing-pycon/">losing his job</a>. The backlash over his firing grew disturbingly <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">misogynist</a> and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/">violent</a>. Days later, Richards was <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/">publicly axed</a> by her own employer, email provider SendGrid.</p>
<p>
You can read more about the incident and the fallout <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/">here</a>.</p>
<p>
The debate soon hit /b/, the Web community that, most recently, filled Twitter with <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/jail4bieber-4chan-justin-bieber-fake-rape-rumor/">bogus rumors of a Justin Bieber rape scandal</a>.</p>
<p>
Users locked Richards, PlayHaven, and SendGrid in their sights. Many urged others to sign a petition calling for Richards&#39;s firing, and seemed to delight when SendGrid suffered from outages in the face of an apparent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddos">DDoS attack</a>. The thread&#39;s goal: to ruin Richards&#39;s life.</p>
<p>
We capped it all here. Click images to expand.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich1.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich1.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 88px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich2.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich2.jpg" style="width: 541px; height: 155px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich3.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich3.jpg" style="width: 533px; height: 133px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich4.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich4.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 75px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich6.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich6.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 75px;" /></a></p>
<p>
Someone suggests affecting Richards&#39;s ad partnership with YouTube over apparent racist and sexist remarks.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich7.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich7.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 66px;" /></a></p>
<p>
Others seemed to celebrate as SendGrid was hit by performance issues of an apparent DDoS attack.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos1.png"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos1.png" style="width: 556px; height: 654px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 357px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos2.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos2.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 94px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos3.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/richddos3.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 121px;" /></a></p>
<p>
Someone claiming to be Richards posted in the thread too, calling for civility. However, the pledge to only apologize &quot;if and only if everything about me is erased from the internet first&quot; seems off. As someone who works in the technology industry, Richards would surely be aware that it&#39;s damn near impossible to remove anything from the Internet. It&#39;s highly unlikely that this is actually her.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich8.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/rich8.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 165px;" /></a></p>
<p>
<em>Photo via </em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_qbDO0n6I"><em>adriarichards</em></a><em>/YouTube</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:06:20 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-4chan-raid-sendgrid-donglegate/4chanSocietyAs Adria Richards backlash grows violent, SendGrid publicly fires herhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/7d/c1/7dc1e5e787691b5e35694e35be051bc7.jpg'></p><p>
<strong><em>Warning: This post contains links to violent imagery.</em></strong></p>
<p>
A firestorm over a careless joke turned disturbing after violent threats were sent to the woman at the heart of the incident. Now Adria Richards, who caused an online outrage after she&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">tweeted a photo of two men</a> who were laughing about &quot;big dongles&quot; at a programmers&#39; conference called PyCon, has been fired&mdash;publicly, on Facebook.</p>
<p>
Richards&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/pycon-dongle-joke-misogyny-sexism-adria-richards/">picture of the guffawing PyCon attendees</a> caused one of them to lose his job at a company that sponsored the event. But as the debate around his firing turned public and ugly, and the backlash <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-4chan-raid-sendgrid-donglegate/">spread to SendGrid</a>, Richards&#39;s employer, her contract was terminated. SendGrid released a statement on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SendGrid/posts/10151502570463967">Facebook</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Effective immediately, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SendGrid">SendGrid</a> has terminated the employment of Adria Richards. While we generally are sensitive and confidential with respect to employee matters, the situation has taken on a public nature. We have taken action that we believe is in the overall best interests of SendGrid, its employees, and our customers. As we continue to process the vast amount of information, we will post something more comprehensive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
</p>
<p>
While there was certainly <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5391667">intelligent, civil discourse</a> <a href="https://plus.google.com/104757475552569715504/posts/N81SaYUT5xG">on the matter</a>, it was overshadowed by more inflammatory comments. The backlash against Richards (who had no intention of making the man lose his job) has turned increasingly, grotesquely violent.</p>
<p>
Richards has been <a href="https://twitter.com/fasckira/status/314440681538076672">called</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/UnclePaulyD/status/314715785404768256">practically</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/PlayDangerously/status/314617886050230272">every</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JustmeJustmenow/status/314549828480806914">name</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/skytee/status/314540199763902464">under</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Jdogfour20/status/314636136012201985">the</a> sun. <a href="https://twitter.com/TomIsAJerk/status/314587495587278848">Some Twitter commenters demanded</a> she <a href="https://twitter.com/Jdogfour20/status/314636136012201985">kill herself</a>. A 4chan user allegedly released Richards&#39;s personal information. But few reactions were more disturbing than this one, sent to her Wednesday evening: a <a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/Screen_shot_2013-03-21_at_12.40.21_PM.png">photo</a>&nbsp;(blurred but still NSFW) of a bloody, beheaded woman, bound and stripped, with the caption &quot;<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/Screen_Shot_2013-03-21_at_12.39.36_PM.png">when Im done</a>.&quot; Next to it was a home address and phone number, ostensibly Richards&#39;s.</p>
<p>
The implied threat was clearly murder and rape. Several people in the Twitter community reported the tweet. While the user <a href="http://twitter.com/kash04i20/">was suspended</a>, we found his violent threat indexed by Topsy.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
At least one other user shared the apparent personal information of the troll tweeter in question, including his LinkedIn profile, email address, and phone number. He <a href="https://twitter.com/HimawariChibi/status/314745415578836992">may be</a> from the Sydney, Australia, area, though that can&#39;t be confirmed.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Elsewhere, SendGrid suffered an <a href="https://twitter.com/mikecousins/status/314759751152041984">apparent</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/lOOneydOOdle/status/314756614630559744">DDoS</a> (distributed denial-of-service) attack, causing <a href="http://support.sendgrid.com/entries/23417077-21-Mar-Website-Down-Refusing-Mail">service outages</a> at the email company.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
At least part of the attack came from 4chan&#39;s anarchic /b/ forum. <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/adria-richards-4chan-raid-sendgrid-donglegate/">We tracked it all here.</a></p>
<p>
PyCon, the conference at which the incident took place, <a href="https://github.com/python/pycon-code-of-conduct/blob/master/Attendee%20Procedure%20for%20incident%20handling.md">updated</a> its code of conduct with regards to dealing with harassment in the future. &quot;Public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. PyCon does not condone nor participate in such actions out of respect,&quot; PyCon chair Jesse Noller <a href="https://github.com/python/pycon-code-of-conduct/blob/master/Attendee%20Procedure%20for%20incident%20handling.md">wrote</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, a <a href="http://pastebin.com/ubmznGhn">Pastebin document</a> claims that Anonymous has SendGrid&#39;s client list and was harassing customers amid calls for Richards&#39;s firing.</p>
<p>
Whatever happens next, this firestorm looks set to burn on for a while yet.</p>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/3/21/Screen_Shot_2013-03-21_at_12.39.36_PM.png" style="width: 583px; height: 278px;" /></p>
<p>
<em>H/T&nbsp;</em><a href="https://twitter.com/HimawariChibi/status/314745415578836992"><em>@HimawariChibi</em></a><em>/Twitter | Photo via </em><a href="https://twitter.com/adriarichards"><em>@adriarichards</em></a><em>/Twitter</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:30:19 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/News